CALGARY — Johnny Gaudreau keeps on lighting it up on home ice and the Calgary Flames keep on celebrating victories.
Gaudreau’s red-hot play at the Scotiabank Saddledome continued Sunday night with two goals as the Calgary Flames rallied to beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 and set a franchise record with its 11th consecutive home victory.
Since last losing at home on Oct. 30, Gaudreau has 15 goals and 22 points at home -- including four game-winning goals plus a shootout-deciding goal.
“We love playing at home,” said the 22-year-old forward. “We’re pretty comfortable playing here, it’s a good atmosphere and a lot of fun.”
Gaudreau, tied for sixth in NHL scoring with 39 points (17 goals, 22 assists), ranks third with 29 points at home. He trails only Jamie Benn (31) and Patrick Kane (30).
“Small but plays big,” described Flames coach Bob Hartley. “He’s so much fun to watch, so much fun to coach. Great team guy, great competitor and wants the puck in those big occasions.”
The record the Flames broke was set in 2006-07.
“This is a place we need to win hockey games,” said Matt Stajan, who scored a key short-handed goal. “We’re going to rely on this to be a place for us to hopefully give us some wiggle room down the stretch to gain some points and get into the playoff picture.”
Mark Giordano, with two goals, also scored for Calgary (17-16-2).
Benoit Pouliot scored twice and Teddy Purcell added the other for Edmonton (15-19-3), which gave up a two-goal second-period lead. The Oilers are 1-4-1 since a six-game winning streak.
“It’s frustrating. Getting a lead like that on the road’s not easy to get and it’s even harder to keep and we didn’t do the job,” Pouliot said. “It’s not that we played bad. It’s just a matter of little mistakes here and there and they cost us.”
The Flames trailed 3-1 halfway through the second when Calgary stormed back with three straight goals before the period ended.
The Flames started the rally at 12:52 with their first short-handed goal of the year. It came on a 3-on-1 that was finished off by Stajan, who batted a rebound out of the air for his second goal of the season.
“I played a little lacrosse growing up, some slo-pitch. I’ve been watching (Sean Monahan) score a few goals like that this year. You go to the blue paint, sometimes you’ve just got to find it. I had three whacks at it so I better put that one in somehow,” Stajan said.
After Giordano scored on the power-play at 16:47, Calgary took its first lead with 31 seconds left in the period when Justin Schultz coughed the puck up to Gaudreau in the slot and he buried a shot past Anders Nilsson.
But it was the Stajan goal, his first in 15 games, that both teams pointed to as the key moment.
“That was the goal that re-started the game for us,” said Hartley. “They score and it’s 4-1 and it’s a much tougher hill to climb.”
Oilers coach Todd McLellan was not happy about the blown lead.
“I would call it a collapse. The short-handed goal’s a real disappointing one -- not only because we gave up the chance, but how we defended in our zone. We had some fly-bys going on and nobody stopped to defend.”
Nilsson, replaced by Cam Talbot to begin the third period, took the loss. He had 26 saves.
Karri Ramo had 28 stops for the win.